New age old games (You figure it out)

After a while, forums and chat for the sake of chat becomes boring and repetitive. There are only so many topics and they get rehashed to death.

So what does an older type do when they want to play online? Games?

There are a few choices, but I first eliminated anything to do with lightning reflexes.

Mine left years ago.

The next thing to eliminate are those long lists of trolls, demons, spells, counter spells and other minutiae of game playing in the D&D tradition.

Not for me, who can barely remember my own name some mornings. I have no desire to clutter my memory with otherworldly stuff.

But then I clicked curiously on one of the links I saw and arrived at Evony.

Evony is a new game for adults and those less mature where the premium is on maturity, basic knowledge, psychology, risk taking, bluff and much more.

The game plays more like chess than a pinball game, and the 'world' of Evony resembles the 12th century in Europe.

The game map shows areas of swamp, lakes, hills, and deserts where players can grow food, and mine resources. There are other areas where a person can build a city.

Also scattered around are abandoned cities full of barbarians, and it is a cool, dangerous, but rewarding thing to attack these cities and subdue the barbarians.


So far I have 29 heroes to represent my forces in raids or administering the cities and academies.
So it is time to rename them to suit me, and strike fear in to my enemies.

Some of the new names will be Batman, Robbin, and the Joker, GiJane, SwordBert lifted from the Dilbert comic strip and more. Frivolous, yes. Fun too.

And the cool part is that I can pay to advance swiftly, or pay nothing, and advance more slowly.

Where maturity goes a long way for survival in this game is in the patience needed to develop one's power base before strutting out to conquer the world. As well it is important to make as few enemies as you can. Although you do have to eventually attack others or defend your resource fields, it is wise to ally yourself with a group of people for mutual aid.

For instance I am now in an alliance of about 50 people and the alliance power is rated around forty from the top. Not a big target as many other alliances are much smaller, and not a contender between the really big hitters. We keep a low profile and bide our time.

Who are my allies? Adults mostly between 30 and 50 years of age, and spread from Ireland to Australia via Canada, the US, and other places like India and the far east. There are now over a million players worldwide.

We chat amongst ourselves as we play, and hurry troops or supplies to our allies if needed. We all know it is a game and we do not get really upset or intense, but at the same time we do not play “silly' we aim to win. Survival is winning. Becoming too weak to defend one's castle is losing..

I will return in a few days with more details, but first I am going to play a bit more.

The correct title for addressing me is “My Lord” hehehe